The SRF production means an upgrading of our waste management line of services. It enables us to fulfil our partners’ requirements that their wastes (waste steel, non-ferrous metals, non-metals, packaging, hazardous and other wastes) are collected, sorted and processed in environmentally friendly way. The new production line is a good solution for a large part of the waste that is not suitable for the material recovery, and in the past used to end up in landfills.  We plan this investment will bring us approx. 5 % of our annual income in the next years.

Severe economic crisis has affected also our activity. The fall of industrial production has resulted in reduced quantities of waste metals and non-metals. Last year, we were very successful in keeping the quantity levels of collected and recycled wastes, however the price trends of raw materials were not favourable, which resulted in our performance figures.

Our market share of our flagship programme, i. e. the waste steel, reaches over 40 %.  On the other hand, Slovenia is still one of the few EU countries that do not exploit the energy potential waste. The market of alternative fuels has not been developed yet, however the demand for alternative fuels by industrial customers is increasing. Gorenje Surovina with its new production line is the first and the only SRF producer in Slovenia so far.

We estimate that some of our programmes have reached their maturity level in the Slovenian market due to the drop of industrial production, business restructuring and penetration of new market players. Our Ecology Division strategy focuses on the SE European markets, since they record a strong growth potential due to their preparation for the EU membership. At this moment, there are 7 business units operating in these markets, and a few new recycling centres and W-t-E plants are in the preparation and implementation stage.

The activity of Gorenje Surovina deals with the treatment of end-of-life products, giving these products a new value by their collecting, transportation, sorting, and recovery into secondary raw materials and energy products. We provide also a wide range of other services related to waste – from weighing, radioactivity measurements, pressing, cutting and grinding of waste to the counselling and chemical analyses in our laboratory. We have own R & D department as well. We plan to keep on complementing our range of products and services together with the associated companies of the Ecology Division, to offer comprehensive services to all our partners not only in Slovenia but also in the SE European countries.

Years ago, we started researching how to solve the burning problem of depositing wastes in landfills, and studying up-to-date trends on the waste management in other countries.  One of the reasons is the new tightening legislation that requires pre-treatment of waste prior to disposal, and prohibits disposal of the waste with sufficient energy potential, which assures sufficient input quantities for the SRF production.  The second reason is an increased demand by industrial customers who are allowed to co-incinerate alternative fuels from waste. All this proves that our activity has reached the growth phase. Additional stimulus gave us also a tender bid for the RIP09 project by the Slovenian Technology.

The total investment amounts nearly to € 3 million. Approximately 10 % of the investment is financed with the resources acquired from the public tender for the RIP09 project, which is being implemented under the Operational Programme for Strengthening Regional Development Potentials for the Period 2007 – 2013. The majority of the acquired subsidy is however used for R & D, which we carry out together with our partners from industry and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering  the of University of Maribor.

Taking into account the current P/S ratio, we estimate that the investment shall be repaid in five years.

At the moment, the SRF has no commercial value in Slovenia because it is still considered as waste No. 19 12 10, in accordance with the current legislation. Our R & D efforts are focused on the SRF standardization procedures. Our goal is to demonstrate that we can produce fuel of required chemical, physical and energy properties by the controlled production process at all stages. In this case, the sales price would change, too.

The source for the SRF production is industrial waste, bulky waste, packaging residues, packaging waste, residues from separate municipal waste fractions after sorting, and other non-hazardous waste that can not be sorted and prepared as secondary raw-material because of impurities. Potential suppliers are paper industry, textile industry, car industry, plastics industry and other industries, as well as public utility companies that carry out public waste management services.

Our SRF from non-hazardous waste can be used for co-incineration in cement kilns, thermal power plants and heating plants either in Slovenia or abroad.

The content shares of individual waste materials can vary depending on individual customers’ requirements for the chemical, energy and physical properties of the SRF.

Our SRF quality reaches classes 2 and 3 according to the Decree on Recovery of Non-hazardous Wastes in Solid Fuel (Uradni list RS, No. 57/2008) and Appendix 3 (Specification and Classification of Solid Recovered Fuels), which ensures caloric value between 15 and 25 MJ/kg, and chlorine content between 0.6 and 1 %.

During co-incineration in cement kilns, the ash is mixed with cement, so that there is no ash disposing.

The ash that is generated in heat production plants can be disposed of in non-hazardous landfills.

The ash normally consists of metal oxides, mostly of alkaline-earth metals that are integral parts of (various rocks) soil.

The incineration /co-incineration temperature shall be rather high, about 1200 ^oC, which is suitable for medium and large combustion plants, i. e. the solid fuel-burning appliances with input power above 1 MW. At such a high temperature, any organic matter decomposes to CO₂ and water. Other potentially harmful products from combustion are cleaned in filters.

If the combustion is controlled, the flue gas cleaned, and the solid fuel from non-hazardous waste of high quality, there is no adverse impact on the environment.

The research task that we perform under the scope of the RIP09 project is aimed at determining whether direct thermal treatment of solid fuel from non-hazardous waste is possible in medium and large combustion plants without additional cleaning of flue gas except dust particles and SO₂. Therefore, we prepare recipes for different waste mixtures in the form of reference solid fuel samples to be thermally treated in the pilot combustion plant, and then emission levels of harmful substances in flue gases to be observed.  We presume these values will not deviate from emission standards relating to incineration plants and to the medium and large combustion plants.

Our current R & D work under the RIP09 project concentrates on the pilot runs and preparation of reference samples for tests in combustion plants. After the end of the project in April 2012, and the beginning of regular operation, we plan to process annually about 30 to 45 thousand tons of waste.  

About 15 % annually.

That means that the whole mass flow of waste (30,000 – 45,000 t) is going to be brought to W-t-E recovery.

Our production of solid recovered fuel from non-hazardous waste is an important contribution to the environmental benefits, especially because it reduces greenhouse gases and landfill leachate. The SRF production contributes also to the reduced usage of primary energy products that could be otherwise used by our partners, and to the reduced demands for allowances.

Strengths:

-    Reduced usage of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas) and other energy products

-    The ease of landfills (smaller space needed for landfills)

-    Less landfill leachate, less unpleasant odours, which results in reduced environmental burden

-     Reduced CO₂ in the atmosphere, if we take into account that CO₂ or not caught CH₄ (methane) is produced 
also during the  decomposition of waste in landfills

-     Energy products are not thrown away to be decomposed spontaneously

-     The SRF has a smaller sulphur content than the cleanest coal

Weaknesses:

-     More sophisticated filters for  flue gas cleaning

-     Other technology for energy intake

-     Strict sorting of industrial and municipal waste

1 kilo of our SRF gives an average of:

-     21 MJ/kg of energy or

-     approx. 5.8 kWh

In 2008, deposition of waste amounted to 340 kilos/citizen. (Source:  http://www.stat.si/doc/pub/okolje2009-SLO.pdf) If a half of this quantity is suitable for the SRF recovery as light fraction, we can produce 170 kg SRF /citizen out of it, which means 1000 kWh of energy. If we multiply this quantity by 2 million of inhabitants, we receive 2 million megawatt-hours of electricity per year.